Petrusso is a freelance writer with degrees in history and screenwriting. In this essay, Petrusso examines the female characters in the novel, comparing the varying degrees of power they wield.

In an interview about The Known World: A Novel with Sarah Anne Johnson of The Writer, Edward P. Jones had the following to say about the "dynamic women" in his book:

There are such women nowadays, and these women can't be the first ones. There must've been women like that before. I'm not doing anything extraordinary with them. I don't have some woman running for the Senate in Virginia in 1855—that would be ridiculous. You have women who, within the scheme of things, are able to stand up and assert themselves.

Jones goes on to point out that Fern "knows that she has a certain power" because she taught the children of William Robbins, the leading white...